Hypertext systems should take about 1/4 second to move from one place to another. If the delay is longer, people may be distracted; if the delay is much longer, people will stop using the system. If the delay is much shorter, people may not realize that the display has changed.
Akscyn’s law, coined in the early 80s during the development of the ZOG hypertext system.
In the last decade, from 2000 through 2009, more than 47,700 pedestrians were killed in the United States, the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of passengers crashing roughly every month. On top of that, more than 688,000 pedestrians were injured over the decade, a number equivalent to a pedestrian being struck by a car or truck every 7 minutes.
From Transportation For America’s Dangerous by Design campaign.
The librarian isn’t a clerk who happens to work at a library. A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a sherpa and a teacher. The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.
[…]
We need librarians more than we ever did. What we don’t need are mere clerks who guard dead paper. Librarians are too important to be a dwindling voice in our culture. For the right librarian, this is the chance of a lifetime.
Seth Godin on the future of the library.
UX design begins by learning about the business model, doing user research and understanding how a service can fit into the users’ lives in a meaningful way. Thus UX design has a crucial part in defining the business strategy, providing baselines for business decisions with such design deliverables as personas or user stories. A UX-driven process doesn’t end with the UIs either, it’s also about testing with people, supporting development, making ongoing adjustments even after the launch.
After two and half years, this is my last week at Torchbox. An announcement tinged with both sadness and excitement.
Sadness because during my time here I’ve had the opportunity to work with an incredibly smart and committed team of people, on very cool projects for organisations as diverse as Greenpeace UK, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and Coeliac UK.
Excitement because of what the future holds.
I’m very proud to announce that from the 7th of March I will be joining the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society as their Head of Online, or as I’m personally going to refer to it, “Chief Geek”.
Grandiose title aside, I’m going to be delving into everything they do online. Their public web presence, educational outreach, social media involvement, research tools, and a whole lot of other things I’m forgetting right now. In short, I have been tasked with turning the WDCS into the exemplar 21st century, web-native, conservation organisation.
It’s going to be one hell of a challenge, but I cannot wait to get stuck in.